Key Terms/Concepts – Islam (Chapter 11)

• In what geographic area did Islam originate?

A: Arabia
o How did the location/culture in which Islam developed affect the tenets (ideas) and practices of the
religion?
_ Clan/tribal loyalties
~Kinship networks and dar-al-Islam survive after appearance of Islam
_ Bedouin
~Nomadic (bedouin) establish sense of family/clan loyalty
_ Mecca
_ Ka’ba
_ Medina
~One of few areas of arable land in Arabia, agricultural center
-- Trade networks
• How did trade networks shift after the decline of classical empires c. 200 CE?
~Merchants abandon land routes in favor of maritime routes connecting w/ land routes
in Arabia: allows Arabian cities to thrive off trade
• Contacts with other religions, including Judaism and Christianity
• Muhammad (also spelled Mohammed)
o Basic outlines of life story
_ Lived (c. 570-632 CE)
_ Background/occupation: born into merchant family in Mecca, orphan,
worked for Khadijah and eventually marries her
_ Strong wife (Khadijah) and daughters
_ Visions of Archangel Gabriel
_ Considered himself the last prophet
_ Return to Mecca, destruction of pagan shrines
• But was Ka’ba destroyed? NO
_ Conquest of much of Arabian Peninsula by his death
o Allah = God
o Qu’ran (also spelled Koran)
_ In what language was the Qu’ran written?
o Hadith (collected sayings) – used by scholars to interpret Qu’ran

o Hijra (also spelled Hejira) from Mecca to Medina

_ Muhammad’s attack on idolatry made merchants who controlled
access to Ka’ba unhappy
_ Beginning of official Muslim calendar
o Umma = “community of faithful”
_ Political, social and economic understanding of
“community”
o “Seal of the Prophets”: Muhammad sees self as final prophet of Allah
_ How does Islam relate to Judaism and Christianity?
~Accepts many of their prophets, same God, but
believed to be a more complete, true practice of God's vision
o Hajj = pilgrimage to same Ka'ba
o Five Pillars of Islam
 1. Allah is the only god
2. Must pray daily while facing Mecca
3. Must fast during Ramadan
4. Must contribute tithe to weak and poor
5. Must go on hajj to Mecca at least once if circumstances allow
o Jihad = “struggle”
-Interpreted different ways, believed by SOME Muslims
-Combat evil, spread Islam, fight threatening nonbelievers
o Sharia = Islamic Law
_ Comprehensive, theocratic approach?
~Guidance for everyday affairs based on Quran and moral codes
o Dar-al-Islam
• Caliph = deputy
o 1st caliph = Abu Bakr
o How was he selected?
~Selected by Muhammad's advisors
_ Link to division into Shi’ia (or Shia) Islam (Shiites) and Sunni
Islam: Shiites wanted Ali instead of Abu Bakr
o Religious and political/military responsibilities
• Spread of Islam
o You should know the general timeline and locations where it spread
~c. 630's CE: Muslim armmies seize Byzantine, Palistine, Syria and took most of Mesopotamia
from Sasanids
o Effect on Byzantine and Sasanid Empires?
~651 CE: conquered Sasanid Dynasty and incorporate Persia into Empire
~early 700's: Conquer Hindu kingdom of Sind in N. India, conquer NW Africa, cross Strait
of Gibraltar
_ Why were they already weakened?
~Governance / admin problems for Islamic;
disagreement over selection of caliph
• Sunni vs. Shiite
o Shiites – followers of Ali
-Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law
-Did not accept early caliphs
-Wanted caliphs to be the direct descendants of Ali /
Muhammad
o Sunnis – followers of first three caliphs, linked to Umayyads of Mecca
o Today, where do most Shiites live? Where do Sunnis live? Which group is more populous
overall?
~Sunni: almost everywhere; more populous
~Shiite: Iran, Iraq, Yemen
• Umayyad Caliphate (661 - 750 CE)
~Established after Ali is assassinated bc Umayyads reject his rule as 4th caliph
o Capital = Damascus (in Syria)
o Characteristics of ruling style
-Dar-al-Islam: favored fellow Muslims, favored Arab military
aristocracy by giving goodies +power to upper class
-Discontent w/ other ethnic and religious groups
~Jizra = head tax on non-Muslim conquered ppl
_ Reasons for decline
~Alienated non-Arab Muslims while gov't and elites live in luxury
 ~Discontent: conquered ppl and resistance of Shia faction

• Abbasid Caliphate ***(750-1258 CE)***

-Ends when Mongols attack in 1258
o Abu al-Abbas = founder of dynasty
o Differences in leadership style from Umayyads
_ No longer expansionist, but defensive militarily
~More tolerant towards non-Arab Muslims and Shias
• Battle of Talas River (751 CE)- IMPORTANT
~Defeat Chinese army; end of Tang Dynasty expansion into C. Asia
~Opened door for spread of Islam w/ Turkish ppl
• Who else did Abbasids fight with?
-Byzantine Empire, central Azn nomads

-NOT an empire expanded thru conquest; grows mostly bc of Islam spread

• Other groups (often splinter groups from Abbasids) did go on
offensive militarily, however
_ But conversions to Islam continued thanks to influence of Ulama and Qadis, standing
army, trade networks, and bureaucratic ministries
o Capital = Baghdad
o Administration
_ Relied on Persian precedents
_ Ulama = religious scholars who develop public policy
-Qadis (judges) set moral standards and resolve disputes based on Sharia
• Forerunners of mullahs in many conservative Islamic countries
today who decide government policy (Iran = example #1)
o Harun al-Rashid
_ Reign = high point of Abbasid Caliphate
_ When did it occur (approximately)?
o Reasons for Abbasid decline
_ Be able to compare them with other empires we’ve studied (and we’ll compare them to the
Byzantine Empire also)
_ Persian influences, then Seljuk Turks (also spelled Saljuq)
• Seljuk Sultan (actual “ruler”) vs. Caliph (who became figurehead)
• Which group first used title “sultan”? A: Seljuk turks
_ Splintering of Empire
• Egypt
• North Africa/Spain (Al-Andalus)
o Capital = Córdoba (in Spain)

Economy, Society and Culture

_ Effect of Islamic empire on economy (compare to other empires)
o Agriculture trade: introduce new crops to other regions
~crops travel west from India: staple crops like sugar and rice
~More varied diets, increase in food supplies
o Urbanization: Throughout Islamic Empire
~Huge markets
~Inc. industrial production and jobs
~New industry of paper
 o Agricultural experimentation: cultivators write manuals of new methods of irrigation, crop
rotation, etc.
~Agricultural production and better econ.
~Leads to urbanization
_ Revival of overland Silk Roads and infrastructure
• How did infrastructure also promote religious missionary activity? Is
this similar to any other empires we’ve studied?
~trade networks
_ Maritime trade
• How did they navigate? Using what technology? Where did they get
it?
~Ventured throughout the Indian Ocean using tech borrowed from other cultures:
-compass(china), sails (SE Azn), astrolabe (Greek)
_ Banking
• How did it facilitate long-distance commerce?
~merchants can settle accounts using credit, so they can trade with distant business
partners without using cash
_ Status of Women
o Women in early Islamic world – How would you characterize their treatment?
_ Where did practice of veiling come from? A: Byzantine and Sasanid empires
o Did women’s rights change at all over time in early Islamic world?
_ Integration of Muslim world
o How did Sharia help to culturally integrate the early Muslim world?
_ How did the Hajj?
o Madrasas = Islamic schools
o Sufis = mystics
_ Debate between Sufi mysticism (must try to achieve union w/Allah through
devotion, not through rational inquiry), ulama (legalist interpretation) and
rationalist philosophers/scientists continues in Islamic world today
_ How did Sufis help spread Islam?
o Non-Arab influences
_ Persian = linguistic, artistic
• Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
• Arabian Nights
_ Indian = science and mathematics
• “Arabic” numerals
• Medicine, astronomy
_ Greek = philosophy, science and medicine
• Plato and Aristotle
• Ibn Rushd – synthesis of Aristotelian rationalism with Islam
o Influence on Scholasticism in medieval Europe